Hovering (MM)
discovered by FierceLinkMaster Trick Description Hovering is, without question, the most useful trick in the game. It lets you levitate to nearly any height or distance. Hovering requires the ISG. As you may have noticed, the ISG prevents you from falling off edges when on the ground. When you shield damage in the air, the game temporarily places Link in the grounded state before he starts falling. Since the ISG doesn't allow Link to start falling when on the ground, it makes Link stick in the air if he shields damage while not on the ground. How To All hovering starts with the ISG. See that article for how to perform it. Method 1: Bombchus #Backflip #Pull bombchu while in midair #Immediately Shield Method 2: Bombs #Pull out a bomb #Wait for the fuse to almost run out #Hold up your shield and backflip Method 3: Blast Mask #Put on Blast Mask #Backflip #Press B and Shield in immediate succession Hovering from the Ground Hovering from the ground requires you to be quick, or Link will fall to the ground after the first hover. Hovering from the ground is easier if the second hover is done with a Bombchu or Blast Mask. However, it is doable with 2 bombs using a "staircase" method. Changing direction while Hovering Discovered by MrGrunz You must Z-target something in order to get out of your locked camera while hovering. This could be an enemy or even a bomchu that you shield to hover with. Simply do a normal hover and hit Z afterwards, and your camera will unlock. If you targeted something such that the arrows showing what you're targeting are green, such as a bombchu or the icicles blocking the path to Mountain Village, after unlocking the camera, you will notice that you won't be able to easily change direction. To change direction hold forward, and slowly move the joystick to the left or right. You will see Link turn slightly and he will be walking forward. During this, quickly let the joystick go to neutral, then hit a direction to change to. Once you're facing another direction, if you let go of the joystick, you will turn as though you're in forwards ESS position. Other Notes Hovering can be used in conjunction with the Mega Flip. For more, see its article. Hovering against a wall is possible with all 3 methods. However, you must pull and shield the bombchu very quickly if you want to use method 1. Pulling out your Ocarina while hovering will cause you to unstick. However, it will not cancel the ISG. Using a bottle or an event item will activate the cutscene and cause Link to fall. He will continue to fall, even if he encounters things like water or ice crystals, until he hits a floor. Swinging your sword while hovering will cancel the ISG and cause you to immediately fall at top speed. Switching masks will also cause him to unstick, but Link will start from rest. Cutscene diving Item dive Using any item that triggers a cutscene during a hover will make you fall. Such items are any nonempty bottle, magic beans, and any trade items. Item diving lets you fall down really fast through water It diving can sometimes be useful as is done in Great Bay temple in 100% speedruns. Some such items, you get rid of when you use to dive. Ohter items display a message saying "This item doesn't seem to work here" and can be used to item dive without getting rid of it and so can be used over and over. Such items are all non-bottled items that trigger a cutscene when you use, and these 6 bottled items: Magical Mushroom, Deku Princess, Gold Dust, Seahorse, Zora Egg, and Big Poe. Ocarina dive In the English version, if you press the ocarina button just once during a hover without mashing it, you start to fall then immediately stop playing the ocarina as soon as you start falling but keep ISG. That lets you quickly go down to a lower place then continue hovering. ESS bottle duplication Every time you hover, you put away any bottle you're holding. It's not known whether it's possible to capture an item during a hover or whether doing so would make you cutscene dive. Given that you can capture an item in mid air without falling, the most likely one you can do so is a fairy. If you capture it after targeting a bombchu, it's not known whether Link turning with the joystick in neutral position will let you ESS dupe because it functions like forwards ESS position. Ground jump glitch It's not known whether it's possible to get the ground jump glitch during a hover, but if you do so, it could be really useful because it both cancels ISG and gets you higher so that you can bombchu recoil flip really far right after that. Making up for mistakes in a speedrun If you fail to get ISG, you can make yourself lose only 4 seconds by walking away from the ledge before the bomb explodes instead of more by failing to get ISG by stabbing the bomb just before it explodes and getting knocked off the ledge. If you accidently wasted a bombchu, you can make that mistake cost you no more than 3 seconds by replacing a later bombchu hover with a bomb hover.